


The Kings of New

by psyclonus



Category: The Transformers (IDW Generation One), Transformers - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe - Everyone Lives/Nobody Dies, Based off IDW and the post-war Cyberverse, For now it's sort of MegaOp influence, Going to be a lot of Decepticon/Autobot pairings when it comes to it!, I'm going to add more characters and pairings, Multi, New Continuity, Politics
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-05-19
Updated: 2020-08-17
Packaged: 2021-03-02 19:42:22
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 14,791
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24262273
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/psyclonus/pseuds/psyclonus
Summary: A new continuity where Optimus and Megatron agree to a truce and basically split the planet into three sections, Decepticons, Autobots and Neutrals. It will show the different politics of each side and mostly just an everybody lives AU. (Except for those who already died prior to Zeta Prime)Mostly want a nice AU where I can build cross fraction relationships as if it was an entirely different continuity so I hope you have fun reading.
Relationships: Blurr/Drift | Deadlock, Jazz/Soundwave, Maaaybe Blurr/Deadlock/Wing later :3c, Megatron/Optimus Prime
Comments: 19
Kudos: 45





	1. A Day with Optimus Prime

This life had been a surprising one. Orion Pax, former law enforcer of Rodion, now labeled as Optimus Prime leader of the city he was born into: Iacon. How did a normal law enforcer become the next Prime? Honestly, Optimus himself wasn’t entirely sure where it had begun. Alpha Trion, the famous storyteller, had told him he was born for greatness, but that thinking was what caused so many problems on their planet of Cybertron to begin with. Optimus was a firm believer in the potential of others; supposedly the Matrix of Leadership had chosen him and he had to live by that code, but the truth was it could have been anyone fighting against Zeta Prime to be given the honor. Despite the disagreement he’d had with Trion, he had no choice but to accept the burden. Others looked up to him as he ran an entire civilization now. Or at least half of one.

After the fall of the corrupted Prime, Sentinel Prime, and the Senate that pulled his strings, Orion and a close friend, who was long gone, had trusted Zeta to take the next title. But that had proved to be a mistake as well. Zeta Prime did not have the concerns of the Cybertronians that lived on the streets, in alleyways, and in the pits in his best interest. Instead, Zeta Prime’s interests aligned with himself, his fame, and the power that he so desperately wanted. Eventually, there was no other way around it: Zeta Prime had to be stopped. Orion Pax had rallied friends and freedom fighters by his side but that wasn’t enough on it’s own. He needed help, they all did, and that was when a miner came to them.

His name was Megatron, forced to be a miner by the Functionalist, but his spark was in a different place. The poems that came from that processor called so many mechs down on their luck to fight against their shackles, rise up, and to have hope. The ones that held those shackles were fearful, afraid to lose the power they’ve had for millions of years. They’d make slogans, something about how the manual class, the servant class, the inconsequential, were going to take away their rights. Orion never believed in the Senate or their Functionalist views so it only felt right to give Megatron the chance to help. Him and the loyalists he had gathered, they called themselves the Decepticons. 

Once Zeta Prime had fallen, Alpha Trion and the senators that had lived assigned Orion Pax to take his place as Optimus Prime. The act was sudden, almost frightening, but it was the choice of those higher than him. It was clear at the time that Megatron felt betrayed that Optimus had accepted the Matrix, accepted the word of the Senate much like Zeta had done before him. Optimus could understand his perspective but he felt it was the best choice to keep the planet from falling into a war. 

The disagreement between the two sides, Autobots who believed in Optimus, and Decepticons who believed in themselves, waged on. It took some time, many long discussions before Megatron and Optimus shook servos. The Decepticons would take one side of the planet whilst the Autobots stayed to their side. In the middle was a fraction of neutral mechs led by a former Senator by the name of Dai Atlas. Tensions began to fade between the two opposing factions as they set up barriers. It was easy to tell who was a Decepticon loyalist by the almost cult like act of joining. Part of their spark became their insignia, something that could never be healed or hidden for the rest of their lives. 

Optimus Prime promised to ignore the politics of the Decepticons and kept a focus on the Autobots that still looked up to him. He was the sole leader of Iacon, the Autobot Capital, with the newly appointed council to keep him in check. The first act Optimus decided to work on was to change the ways of what the Functionalist had done to those less fortunate. Perhaps it was fortunate for him that most of those down on their luck had joined the Decepticon side, creating little tension in Autobot territory. Still, he did not wish for Functionalist views to persist. 

The halls tended to be quiet despite the bots that walked to and from the council. Usually the only thing that sounded was their pedes rhythmically hitting the floor beneath them. Optimus sat in the room at the end of the hall. it was large, extravagant to an extent. He was forced to wear the crown of the Primes, but the purple cape on his shoulders was a personal choice. It was a present from an old friend. 

Daily, bots of all walks of life took turns pleading their cases to the council. Each member would discuss their opinions and points of view but ultimately Optimus had the final say in the matter. On his right sat Prowl, a Petrexian bot he met with a Functionalist upbringing. This past keeps him much more cold and calculating compared to the others on the council. On his left sat Alpha Trion, a trusted story-teller who’s been around longer than anyone knew, and he liked to keep that a secret. Next to Prowl was a choice that may seem more like favoritism, but it was not. Ultra Magnus, Optimus’ spark brother. His views are that of justice and order which Optimus always respected about him. Finally, next to Alpha Trion sat Dominus Ambus, a load-bearer of the well known Ambus family. He’d been fighting against inequality since the beginning. 

With these four bots, Optimus believed he could come to a fair and understanding resolution each time. So every day, the 5 of them sat side by side as new troubles came about and each time they discussed the best course of action. Sometimes the discussions would lead to permanent rules that they would then begin to implement throughout the region. It was a process that seemed to work. Not many complained, but when they did they listened and changed. That was what Optimus believed to be best: keep traditions alive while changing unfair laws. 

Once the daily discussions ended, everyone seemed to go their separate ways… Or that’s what Optimus had hoped. When the doors closed for the day the council members liked to discuss some of their discrepancies. 

“Optimus,” Prowl usually started discussions. “You’re being far too flippant with your choices. Rules cannot be situational. Just because you hear a sob story doesn’t mean they can skid by.” The Petrexian always seemed to flick his door wings when he was particularly frustrated. Optimus couldn’t help but notice the habit from spending so much time with him.

“These rules were created to suppress those ‘sob stories’ Prowl,” Dominus then chimed in. “This is the first time many bots are able to express their distaste and it is our job to fix them.” Despite the body Dominus stayed in, about the same height as Prowl, he always gave off this energy of being much larger. Perhaps it was the act of goodness he tried to portray. 

“I don’t like saying it, but I have to agree with Prowl. We need to keep a set of rules that are not conditional,” Ultra Magnus, ever rule abiding, though his taste for justice allowed him to use the rules to help mechs rather than make them suffer. “Once we find a fair set of rules we can’t be flippant about them.” Though Ultra Magnus looked much larger in all the armor, he was almost the exact same frame as Optimus, minus the upgrades Optimus had received from a certain Senator. 

“I understand and I recieve your opinions, but I’ve made my choices and you must all respect that,” Optimus said. He was a bit more impatient than usual, he had a plan after the council meeting today and he wouldn’t want to miss it for the world. By design it was supposed to be Alpha Trion’s turn to speak, though he stayed silent, a constant observer. “And I believe you all deserve some rest, so please enjoy the rest of your day.” Optimus then removed the cape and crown as he stood from his seat in the middle, folding the cape carefully before setting it down with the crown atop it. Then with a soft wave of his servo he made his way out of the large room.

“Be careful, Optimus,” Prowl spoke up next, as he always did. “We don’t want another Zeta or Sentinel.” And of course Prowl’s worries were justified, but Optimus knew himself. He knew he wouldn’t fall into the clutches of greed and power like the others before him. 

As he neared the doors, they opened for him automatically. The halls had been cleared out like they always had been. At this time only trusted bots were allowed inside, one of which was Jazz. Optimus and the Stanizian had met through a common ally: Prowl. Though it was surprising Prowl had known someone like Jazz. They seemed like complete opposites at times. Jazz was one of the few bots Optimus had considered making a council member, but Jazz quickly turned down the offer before Optimus could even let it leave his intake. The mech said he wanted to just focus on music; it was his passion, and seeing the happiness it brought other mechs was all he seemed to live for. 

“Hey OP.” Jazz pushed himself away from the wall he’d been leaning against, quickening his pace to catch up with Optimus. They were very different in size but Jazz’s attitude made him seem like the largest bot Optimus had ever met. Jazz was smart, kind, cunning and incredibly talented in both fighting and music. Optimus truly enjoyed Jazz’s company above many others. 

“Hello, Jazz, it’s wonderful to see you,” His tone was kind, clearly grateful to see the mech after the long day. But he was also determined to leave the building behind, so Optimus didn’t slow his pace down for the smaller mech. “What brings you here today?” Once they’d made it out to the main doors, Optimus, despite his rush to get away, held the door open for Jazz who gave a short bow of his helm in a silent thank you before passing through.

“There’s been some rumors I wanna confirm,” Jazz grinned up at Optimus as the walking pace began again. Despite his casual attitude and tone, sometimes Jazz still spoke like he was trained to by the Special Services. He gave a quick glance around like he was calculating his surroundings before looking back at Optimus. “All ya gotta say is yes or no okay?” 

Optimus couldn’t help but chuckle under his faceplate. Any secret rumor he supposedly was keeping was no big deal. He made it apparent that he would not keep secrets, he just wasn’t going to go announce every little thing he decided to do with his free time. So he gave Jazz a confirming nod before the musical savvy mech continued. 

“Cool,” He began, “Wanna come with me to Visages?” Oh. So Jazz really did know what Optimus had been up to in his free time. He must even know about Optimus’ usual plan of visiting Visages after the council meeting. Visages was a bar owned by Mirage. He was a neutral, so naturally the bar was located in neutral territory. Optimus had found himself visiting the bar quite often, though he wanted to keep the reasons why a secret. He knew Jazz wasn’t going to out him for it though.

“Yes.” Optimus nodded, which made Jazz change direction almost immediately. So they were going right away huh? Maybe Jazz just wanted to go to the bar anyway. Optimus followed suit, changing his pace and direction to follow Jazz.

“Got a friend I want you to meet.” And just like that the Q&A session was over. Optimus expected more, but from Jazz’s intellect he probably immediately figured the rumors were true. Just depends on the exact details of said rumors, but Optimus supposed he would find out what this was all about soon enough. 

Once they’d both made it to the main road, Jazz hopped onto his servos and transformed into his alt-mode. He was always a bit of a show off and it always made Optimus smile. Instead of putting on a whole show of it like Jazz, Optimus simply transformed and the two drove off to the neutral bar. With only the sight of Optimus, the guards at the edge of the Autobot territory moved aside, allowing the two to leave without any problems. The neutral area was home to a large city, named after Crystal City, which had long since been buried under the Sea of Rust. 

Since the Autobots and Decepticons had taken most of the planet, those neutrally aligned were stuck with the smallest portion. However, because of their neutrality, they were allowed to triverse between Decepticon and Autobot territory with little trouble. Many Decepticons and Autobots spent their off times visiting the neutrals and their city. Laws were different here, but they usually accepted visitors quite often. 

Optimus and Jazz had both visited the city more than once so they didn’t bother stopping to sightsee. In fact Jazz seemed quite interested in taking a short cut straight to Visages. It was fine, Optimus was not opposed to the short cut. He did have a regularly scheduled meeting at the bar anyway. They’d arrived in no time at all, and Jazz transformed back into his proto-form, with Optimus doing the same directly after. The bar was fancy and one wouldn’t even guess it was a bar if they’d never been inside before. The outside was dark blue and purple with neon lights lining the doorway. It was clear Mirage liked to keep the image of this place as spotless and perfect as possible.   
They walked up to the door and Jazz paused, right in front of it so Optimus couldn’t pass by. The smaller mech turned on his pedes and looked up at Optimus. He looked as though he wished to say something, contemplating his words. The Autobot leader decided to be patient, letting Jazz take his time to get his words in order. . 

“If you’re talking about peace and maybe tearing down these fractions...I think a lot of mechs would really appreciate it.” Jazz said, and seemed almost troubled as he looked up at Optimus. He understood why the planet was separated, but he also didn’t want it to be. It was a hard position to be in but Optimus’ position felt much more complicated. 

“With everyone’s help I’m sure we can all work this out.” With a gentle servo on Jazz’s shoulder and a reassuring but dismissive response, Jazz simply nodded and stepped aside. What more could he really say? He wasn’t nearly as persistent with his words as Prowl was. 

Inside Visages was just as beautiful as the outside; Mirage was behind the bar mixing some drinks for a few bots on the stools. As far as the optic could see there were Decepticons, Autobots and Neutrals, all enjoying their time together. It always warmed Optimus’ spark to see, and Jazz also seemed relatively pleased by the sight. It was a nice place to be. The music flowed through the atmosphere but wasn’t blaring, drunks filled the bar with laughter and singing, but Mirage never let them get too crazy. Best of all, no one listened to your conversations. Jazz only needed a second to take in the surroundings to memorize them. He then quietly tapped at Optimus’ arm to grab his attention. 

“You go ahead and meet up with your...friend, I’ll introduce you to mine later.” Jazz then gave Optimus a thumbs up, a nudge, and a knowing smile. None of which made any sense to Optimus, so he just raised a brow ridge and nodded in response. Jazz hopped off to the bar, greeting some mechs on the stools and Mirage like they were old friends. Optimus had never noticed Jazz in here before? But maybe Optimus found himself too busy talking to notice everyone in the bar whenever he came here anyway. 

Optimus then gave another glance around. The table he usually sat at already had its occupant and two drinks placed on the table. Trying not to seem too awkward (he wasn’t sure why he was worried about that) he walked over to the table, sitting down at the chair across from the other mech.

“Hello, old friend.” Optimus spoke with a smile behind his faceplate. The mech at the other side of the table also smiled, but lifted the drink up to his lips to hide it. The mech before him was a Decepticon, but not just any Decepticon. It was the ‘con in direct opposition to himself. The old miner had happened upon Optimus when they had both come to the bar for the first time. Megatron seemed to want a release from those he served with on the Decepticon version of the council, similar to Optimus’ reason for showing up here. They both were usually tired and didn’t speak much, instead choosing to enjoy the silent company of each other. 

“Nice to see you haven’t stood me up yet.” Megatron teased in a rather harsh tone, one he’d trained himself to speak in, but it wasn’t meant to be rude to Optimus. Megatron was just naturally off putting after his years of pit fighting and working in the mines. At least Optimus had seen the struggle, it allowed him to find a peaceful resolution with the mech instead of potentially starting a planet scale war.

“I look forward to our discussions every time we meet here,” His faceplate slid away so he could pick the drink from the table and sip at it. Optimus always ordered the same mid-grade energon when he came here. High-grade always seemed too strong and low-grade had a bitter taste. Megatron on the other servo drank low-grade each time, perhaps because he was used to it. “How has your day treated you?” Once he’d swallowed what he had sipped he asked about Megatron’s day, hoping to start their conversations quickly before Jazz came over to interrupt. 

“My day?” Megatron chuckled a little. How was his day? Usually, with others, he would respond with a simple ‘fine.’ No one else needed to know the details of his daily exchanges, but Optimus was different. Despite taking the title ‘Prime,’ Optimus always made it apparent that he was ready to listen and he was a pretty good listener at that. His words were never sugar coated sweetly to make the former miner feel better, and his words were never bitter to degrade him. Instead they were honest and insightful. So to answer Optimus’ question he decided to walk Optimus through his day like he knew Optimus would do for him in return after.


	2. A Day with Megatron

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Just a day in the life of a Decepticon leader. He's having some troubles and it's only made worse by a certain one eyed creep. 
> 
> Plus some talking at the bar!

And what a day it was, or at least that’s what someone would say if they weren’t dealing with a bunch of broken and otherwise confused mechs who were trained for war but had no war to fight. The process was hard for many of them, Megatron included. Peace and freedom for Cybertronians was what he was fighting for but actually having it was a different plan. On the Autobot side, they seemed keen on doing things diplomatically; slowly getting rid of a threat, day by day, but that would never truly work. Megatron, as well as the other Decepticons voted into power, had agreed to make functionalist, empurata, and shadowplay completely illegal. Any loyalist were also thrown in jail or, depending on the severity of the crime, executed. 

Many of the decepticons asked for bloodshed, wanting to watch those that wronged them bleed. Megatron didn’t disagree. He’d made every execution public and the crowd roared as each helm flew. This was necessary, but as the ground became stained in energon, a lot of mechs desired a more peaceful resolution. Which was where life imprisonment came into play. Each criminal had a chance to prove themselves and Megatron always allowed the public to choose. No single mech would ever have infinite power. 

That being said there still needed to be someone in charge to keep the unruly ‘cons in line. Once again, Megatron would allow voting by the public to be cased, each city-state held under Decepticon rule would have their own representative. Such as Megatron in control of the capital Kaon and Starscream, somehow, in control of Vos. Starscream was a snake that lied to get to his position. However, he played to the public’s audials and pleased them, so there was no reason to kick Starscream from his perch. For now at least. 

There was an exception to allowing the public full control, and that exception was Decepticon traitors. They were unable to vote for deserters or the like into any station of power. Which is why Megatron was visiting a particular criminal locked in a high ranking prison deep in the pits of Kaon. The guards, heavily armed, never asked questions and never spoke. Honestly, sometimes Megatron wondered if they even had vocalizers. Though considering who they were guarding constantly, it was better that way. It may even be better for them to have their audials removed too. 

Inside the fortified prison, the ex-Senator sat alone, usually unmoving, though sometimes when Megatron visited he saw the purple mech scraping at the wall with a single digit. There was no possible way for Megatron to ever understand what was going on inside of that shadowplayed processor. 

“Hello, Megatron.” The one opticed scientist spoke first, not even bothering to look up from where he was sitting. Which was a good thing; Megatron didn’t like looking into that optic. He sympathized with what had happened to Shockwave, but he’d also given Shockwave a chance in the Decepticons. Instead, the scientist had betrayed them and compromised the peace treaty written by Optimus and Megatron. 

“I have your ration, don’t waste it.” Megatron dropped the ration down then slid it under with his pede so Shockwave could easily get to it. The scientist never seemed to get up and get his rations but when Megatron returned they were always gone. 

“It is illogical for you to continue providing me rations.” Shockwave finally decided to look up. Immediately that optic made Megatron uncomfortable, but he never let it show. 

“It’s part of the treaty, you spend your sentence here and you’re released to the Autobots.” Then Megatron shrugged, he didn’t want it to seem like he even really cared if Shockwave accepted them or not, because he didn’t. But he did have to keep him alive. Optimus, for whatever reason, wanted him turned over alive. 

“I don’t mean that, but you’ll find out soon enough.” Then Shockwave lowered his helm again, staring at the ground, presumably thinking about some way to escape. Megatron wouldn’t fall for his cunning tricks, so without another word Megatron turned on his struts and left the prison. 

Megatron didn’t even glance at the guards as he walked by them, though he heard a voice behind him once he’d passed by. “What he says is true,” were the words that entered his audials, which all but stopped the former miner in his tracks. 

“What did you say?” He said as he quickly turned to face the two guards, both of them looking at Megatron with slight confusion, then at each other. Were they acting against him? Or had Megatron really heard nothing? 

“What. Did. You. Say?” He repeated as he stepped closer, practically towering over the two guards. Both of them glanced down and away, their red optics flicking in what could only be assumed as fear. This is what he’d be training his decepticons to feel when they defied him, so they were still under his control. Yet, neither of them spoke again. The act frustrated Megatron. He wasn’t above threatening, so in a flash he grabbed one of the guards, the unlucky right one, by his neck and held him up against the nearest wall. 

“Speak now or you will never speak again.” The poor mech struggled under the hold, his pedes kicking out weakly to try and get Megatron away. The decepticon leader could understand that desperation so he decided not to consider it an act of deficiency, but rather an act of desperation. But despite that, the decepticon didn’t speak so Megatron squeezed harder. If he had to he would pop this one’s helm clean off and move to the next. 

“He told us!” Megatron’s attention snapped to the other smaller guard who looked devastated. Perhaps he wasn’t too keen on watching his partner’s spark extinguish. “Shockwave! Cybertron is going to fall into an energy crisis!” The poor smaller mech was practically flailing his arms about as he spoke, though what he said only seemed to sour Megatron’s mood. 

“Energy crisis?!” Megatron shouted, suddenly dropping the mech he had clenched in his servo before he really crushed him, the smaller of the two immediately going to his aid. How in the frag are they having an energy crisis?! No one had said anything about that to him, unless no one had been looking? Had they just assumed Cybertron would be completely fuel efficient for eternity? Megatron growled low in his throat as he got on a comm link with the only ‘con he could trust to look into this. 

“Soundwave!” Honestly, he hadn’t even realized he was still shouting. “I need you to look into something for me.” Then he turned away from the two guards. They knew the consequences of talking to the prisoner, so he didn’t bother threatening them further. They would easily be replaced, and perhaps he really would remove the audials of anyone standing guard here. 

The weather in Kaon was never the nicest, in fact it brought a harsh wind daily. Most of Kaon’s structures were built to deal with this and those that lived there had grown accustomed to it, but that didn’t stop the unrest and jealousy that came with the knowledge that the Autobots had the perfect city of Iacon. The closest the Decepticons ever came to entering such a city was at the edge of the city-state of Tarn, but with the boundaries set, no Decepticon was allowed to enter the Autobot territory. This tension always seemed to find its way to Megatron’s pedes, literally. 

“This is the price of freedom and peace,” Megatron growled as he dug his heel strut into a mech’s faceplate, one that had challenged him in the pits. The pits of Kaon still ran, but with Megatron fully in charge he only allowed the pits for those to take their frustrations out rather than to die in meaningless glory. Sometimes the best way to teach unruly mechs was to beat the truth into them. It was a sad truth he’d learned living here far before the Decepticon movement was ever made. 

“Together we will create a Cybertron far better than the one controlled by the Prime, but it won’t be finished in a day!” His frustration had been climbing today, the only thing he’d been looking forward to was the meeting once the day was over. And hopefully once Soundwave is done with his investigation it will yield a positive answer. For now he’d take his anger out against other ‘cons that wanted the same.

Each fight was also a debate, every mech just as uneducated as the last, but this was how they were learning. Megatron was lucky to have someone to teach him a kinder way, but most of the decepticons didn’t have that. So Megatron taught them to learn the way they knew how: metal clanging against metal as his fist would connect with a faceplate. Mech after mech and shout after shout, Megatron won each battle. Not just battles of fists, but of words. He shouted to the ground and many times they shouted back. 

This was a perfect way to hype up the decepticons that desired to fight, it helped keep them in line. But doing this for as long as Megatron had been forced to, it grew old and stale quickly. This isn’t what he wanted from a free Cybertron but it is what he was given. A young mech had given a particularly interesting argument, but his illiterate tongue was his downfall. He easily grew frustrated and confused himself. The mech had been trained to kill and nothing else, never taught to read, nor shown compassion from the Decepticons he’d pledged himself to. This mech, given the name Deadlock by Megatron himself, believed in a unified Cybertron rather than a segregated one. That was what they were originally fighting for to begin with after all. The battle itself wasn’t hard; without weapons the poor mech was quickly defeated, but his view still rang through Megatron’s processor. 

Later, after his day spent in the pits, he’d decided to fix any dents that had made themselves apparent while fighting. Megatron sat rather antsy on a slab in Hook’s medical bay. It wasn’t the best medic they had...not that they had a lot, but Hook liked to do his work and do it as perfectly as possible. Besides, Megatron didn’t need extensive care. 

“Might need you to knock some sense into Bonecrusher.” Hook chuckled a little as he popped a dent out from Megatron’s arm, then smoothed it out as if it never had a dent in the first place. The constructicons were special combiners meant for war, yet unused, at least Hook seemed to be settling into his life rather easily.

“You know where to send him then.” Megatron wasn’t ready to converse right now. Instead his processor was still focused, waiting for Soundwave’s response, anything, but still it was silent. It must be taking the cassette awhile to investigate this ‘crisis.’

“Something on your mind, my lord?” Hook had finished the last dent as Megatron stood up, not even taking a moment to appreciate all of Hook’s hard work. But considering even Hook noticed his demeanor, Megatron would have to focus more on his outer appearance. If he looked weak in front of the others it wouldn’t bode well for him. 

“I’m fine, get back to work.” Megatron waved the constructicon away from him as he left he medbay without so much as a thank you. Once Megatron had left the building the medical bay was located in, he checked his internal clock. He was a little early, but he’d rather get to Visages sooner rather than later. 

And there he sat, in the neutral territory, watching mechs from both sides and no sides interact, laugh. It was a sight to behold. The last time he’d even seen anything so relaxing was far before a war was thought of, far before Megatron even learned how to fight. He’d sit in a booth much like the one he was in now, across from him an old mining friend lost to the Autobot side. They’d both drifted apart, and considering how much Megatron has changed, that would most likely be for the best. 

As he waited he sipped at the engex he’d already gotten, checked his internal clock multiple times, and waited, and waited. Sure he had arrived early, but patience really hadn’t become his virtue. Though it eventually paid off when the mech he was supposed to be seeing entered the bar, and with a friend? Another Autobot of course. They spoke to each other for a moment before going separate ways. 

Optimus Prime, a mech Megatron considered his equal in strength and intelligence, sat down across from him. Despite the face plate covering the Autobot leader’s smile, Megatron could tell he was pleased to be here. His suspicions were confirmed when the mask slipped away so he could easily sip at his own higher grade engex. It was odd that a mech of such opposition was able to help calm the air around Megatron. Together they each recounted their time apart, giving each other proper amounts of details and time. 

“A potential energy crisis?” Optimus put a servo to his chin, taking a moment to think about it. When Megatron mentioned it, he watched Optimus’ frame for any signs that he’d heard of anything similar, but there was no indication of such. Optimus seeming unknowing was not an act. 

“And you haven’t heard from Soundwave yet?” Megatron simply shook his helm in response, keeping the cube of energon to his derma as Optimus spoke. 

“Tomorrow I will have my own research done on the matter.” Optimus seemed determined to figure this out, even though there could potentially be nothing at all to figure out. 

“Don’t bother,” Megatron quickly put the cube down, frowning deeply as he stared at the table for a moment, before picking his optics back up to look at Optimus who looked confused at his response. “It’s one of Shockwave’s tricks. He wants us to scramble about like idiots.” 

“I don’t believe that,” Without skipping a beat Optimus responded. It was probably past emotions that kept him going. “I trust his word on this.” Another thing to add to the list of many things that these two rulers did not agree on. 

With a scoff Megatron’s expression soured. “You trust the crazed scientist that desired war? Something you so admittedly tried to avoid?” 

“I ...do not.” The down casted look from Optimus almost made Megatron feel bad. Almost. “But I do believe he wants what is best for Cybertron, warning us of an energy crisis has no benefit to him personally.” 

“He wants us to fight over the energy that we are apparently lacking.” Megatron quickly retorted. That was the only thing that made sense to him. “Look around you,” Then he gestured toward the bar where mechs were getting countless drinks without a care in the world. “If we were losing too much energy, we’d certainly notice by now.” 

Optimus hummed to himself for a moment, digits tapping gently against the cube in his servos. “Still, I’ll conduct my own research. I will share my results with you as I’m sure you will do the same for me.” And there was the trusting smile Optimus gave Megatron so often. There wasn’t a real reason to trust the decepticon leader, but feeling that trust on him was genuinely spark warming.

“Fine, next time we meet, I’ll have results.” With a huff Megatron waved down the bartender, Mirage, for another drink. There were plenty of mechs in the bar that would personally deliver it to him, so there was no need to stop the conversation to get it.

“As will I, my friend.” Optimus then followed suit, drinking the rest of his and holding up two digits to indicate he desired more as well. 

“OP!” An unfamiliar voice to Megatron, but one seemingly all too familiar with Optimus, came up to the table. Behind him was a mech Megatron recognized. The sharkticon was a fan of him prior to the Decepticon rise, which meant he was a fan of Megatron’s poetry. Though Skybyte seemed visibly uncomfortable by the sight of Megatron. Who wouldn’t be? 

“This here's’ my friend Skybyte, a Decepticon by trade but a songwriter by spark,” Jazz put a reassuring arm on the sharkticon at his side. “We been talkin’ to Mirage and looks like we might be able to open up a little band here in the bar, help get Decepticons and Autobots to go and be friendlies.” 

“I believe it is a wonderful idea Jazz, but..” Optimus must have caught the look Megatron was giving the two odd friends before him. 

“You should be wary of how optimistic you are, Autobot,” Megatron decided to interrupt, but mostly just to finish Optimus’ sentence. “Decepticons aren’t unfriendly with you bots because of the insignias we wear, but the meaning behind each one. Our conflicting views are the reason we’ve separated.” There was a low growl in the leader’s vocalizer as he leaned a bit over the table, glaring at the two of them. 

“My lord listen-” The sharkticon started but Jazz put his servo up to stop him. Where Skybyte seemed visibly nervous, Jazz got more serious. It would seem this Autobot wasn’t a push over like many others.

“Two things: one, the name’s Jazz,” Somehow he actually even had the nerve to talk to Megatron like he was some normal mech. Usually Megatron would find it insulting, but something about it intrigued him. “And two, we are just starting a band, not a march on Kaon. Let some mechs have fun. Both sides are suffering from this whether either of you know it or not.” Jazz gave each of them a rather serious look, like he was trying to get them to catch on, to think a little. 

“Jazz-” Optimus began, but much like Jazz had just done to Skybyte, Megatron stopped him. 

“You know quite a bit Autobot, maybe more than you let on.” Now he was challenging Jazz, seeing how far this confidence went.

“Hey, Meg, listen, I already told you my name so try and use it.” Jazz gestured, then turned away, waving for Skybyte to follow him. The nickname actually had Megatron taken aback. Maybe Optimus was used to those below him to be so casual, but Megatron was far from used to it. Fear was what controlled a lot of mechs in the Decepticons. Almost to prove his internal thoughts, Skybyte quickly bowed with a soft apology before following after Jazz, presumably to complain about his attitude.

“I apologize for Jazz, but he does have a point.” Optimus decided to point out as Megatron was busy staring after the other two for a good moment, processing his words.

“About his name?!” Megatron looked at Optimus, almost stunned by his statement suddenly. The reaction was another thing that caught the feared leader off guard. A laugh? Optimus was laughing about this?! As he watched the usually kind spoken and stoic leader show such a strong emotion, Megatron was stunned. Stunned enough to even forget the slight anger it brought him. He’d never heard Optimus laugh before.

“Sorry sorry,” Optimus put his face mask back on to try and stop himself. “I did not mean his name.” He tried to reassure Megatron, though he was still stuck staring. Optimus could have sworn he noticed Megatron’s optics flicker and his expression soften. 

“You’re really giving me far too much to think about today, Optimus.” Megatron put a servo to his helm, almost in pure disbelief. Maybe it was the engex that relaxed him, but despite what had happened, he actually found himself feeling happy about it? Was the Autobot, Jazz, talking about something as simple as this? 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Woo, Chapter 2! Now I can actually start getting more into the story of this. Well, story I say, but I really just am excited to write all the relationships I have planned!


	3. Jazz Infiltration

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Optimus is still nervous about the news he'd gotten from Megatron, but who to tell? Who to talk to about it? None other than Jazz, someone he can trust with pretty much any news.
> 
> Jazz has a little adventure and meets up with an ally?

The ride back was quiet, or at least it was quiet to Jazz. He tried plenty of times to strike up a conversation with Optimus, but the latter continued to respond in quiet one syllable words. Briefly, Jazz hoped it wasn’t some domestic him and the Decepticon leader were having. Or maybe it was directly the opposite?

Whatever the reason, they soon found themselves back in Iacon and the days returned to a normal pace. Optimus would have his council meetings while Jazz did something a little more private. Despite being separated, many Autobots and Decepticons chose to be together, whether it be to fight or to ...have fun together. Jazz decided to take it upon himself and work more as a middle man. Sure he was an Autobot at heart but he didn’t agree with this separation thing like many others did. So one of the best ways, he figured, would be to party together. Share some engex and just relax. That being said, Jazz tended to visit neutral zones almost daily, but today was different.

“Jazz, we need to talk.” The comm link between him and Optimus clicked on. Uh oh. What’s the big-O want? He supposed he could just assign today’s tasks to Sky-byte and call it a day…

Jazz met up with Optimus outside of the council hall as he usually did. The tall build always seemed relieved to see him, which was a relief for Jazz as well. He always wanted to give off the persona that anyone could talk to him openly and honestly. 

“Sup, OP?” Jazz pushed himself off the wall he’d been casually leaning on and gave a quick wave of his servo.

“There’s a… private matter that needs the utmost attention.” The way Optimus had phrased that really wasn’t befitting of the leader of Cybertron.

“I’m not really a Conjux counselor.” Jazz teased as he hopped on over to Optimus so they could easily walk side by side. Though that was an understatement, since Jazz always had to quicken his pace comparatively to the bigger bot. He knew Optimus tried to slow down out of consideration but when he was thinking too hard he tended not to notice.

“Conjux? N...no! Jazz this is serious,” Oh? Did Jazz poke a button he wasn’t even positive existed? Whoops. “It’s been on my processor for a few solar-cycles now and I only trust you to look into it.” 

“I ain’t spyin’ on any Decepticons Optimus. No offense, but I’m kinda a peace organizer, not special ops. At least not anymore.” Imagine if he were to be spotted sneaking around Decepticon territory? Everything he’d been working toward would quickly fall apart. 

“I’m sorry Jazz,” Optimus Prime, always so nice and apologetic. “But that’s not what I meant, I meant I only trust you to look into this without a critical optic.” Then he’d stopped in his tracks which made Jazz do the same. A strong but gentle servo was placed on Jazz’s shoulder forcing him to lock optics with the larger leader. “This is for the whole of Cybertron, not Autobots and not Decepticons. I’ve been informed that we may be on the verge of an energy crisis but I have no proof.” 

Ok, yeah that was something Jazz could understand. Even though he wasn’t in the special ops anymore, he was still one hell of an agent. Though, if Prowl were here he’d probably talk about how that seemed improbable or something, considering there haven’t been any readings of low energy. But Jazz wasn’t Prowl; he’d take this seriously.

“Alright.” Jazz nodded, giving Optimus Prime his undivided attention. The Autobot leader told him everything he knew, about Megatron learning this from Shockwave, to checking it himself with only positive readings. He apparently had even decided to keep this a secret from the council members. Though this potential energy crisis had been laying heavily on his helm, Jazz couldn’t help but be skeptical since it’d come from the notorious liar Shockwave. But for some reason that Jazz didn’t know and didn’t want to ask, Optimus trusted Shockwave’s word on this. 

And so he was off. Iacon was his first stop since that was where he already was, checking every little energon deposit that happened upon the city. Then he was off to the next city, and the next, and the next...And this became a much longer journey than Jazz was hoping for but he promised Optimus he’d take it seriously, so he did. 

His next stop would take him to the outskirts of Protihex, which wasn’t nearly as populated as the larger cities, so hopefully this journey would be much quicker. When Jazz reached the mostly untouched energon reservoir he transformed back into his bot-form and like every reservoir before this one he walked up to it rather casually. The shining blue liquid was spewing up like a little fountain, coming deep from within the crust of the planet. Once again there was nothing exciting about this spot either, but he still had to test it. 

Jazz removed the energy reader from his subspace, placing the needle end into the energon and watching as the machine beeped a few times then revealed it’s findings. But unlike previous spots this one came back differently. Odd. 

“Inconclusive? What do you mean inconclusive.” Jazz mumbled out to himself before placing the needle back in for a second try. The machine beeped again before revealing the same results as a moment ago. He hadn’t gotten that reading before… Jazz returned the reader back to his subspace, walking around the reservoir to see if anything out of the ordinary caught his optic. And it did! The ground at one side of the reservoir was a maroon color, tell-tale signs of rust. The energon next to the rust had even begun to turn a black color. He’d never seen anything like it. But it was a mistake to lean closer because the sound of something under him snapping caught his attention.

“Oh no.” Jazz glanced down and saw a large crack in the ground, which quickly slithered off away from the reservoir. “No no no!” Jazz quickly transformed into his alt-mode and began driving as fast as he could, but it was already too late. The ground underneath him had fallen and with it, him. Jazz let out a shout which was drowned out by the sound of metal hitting metal.

By the time Jazz’s optics onlined again it was dark, his immediate area illuminated only by his own biolights. Rubble surrounded him and the only noise being faint dripping of energon from above. He really did just have to fall into a deep hole huh? With a grunt he pushed some debri off of him and staggered up onto his pedes. Immediately, per training, he tried his communicator but was only greeted with the grating noise of static in his audial. 

“Scrap, this is the only time I’ll be jealous of jet alt-modes.” Jazz grumbled to himself, though even such a quiet voice echoed through the empty chambers around him. He flicked off some debri that got stuck in parts of his plating. He was going to have to take a trip to Ratchet after this, but for now he may as well explore. His headlights from his chassis turned on to properly examine the area he’d found himself in. 

Jazz was properly trained to take in his surroundings when he traveled through unknown sectors, and this was exactly like that. He found landmarks or shapes that would help him before continuing on. But as he travelled deeper the energon veins began to shine brightly as if the Sun was down here, the light sparkled off the walls, ceiling and floors. The sight was something wonderful to behold and if he wasn’t worried about potentially being stuck down here he’d take his time to enjoy it. 

As he walked the only sound that echoed throughout the tunnel was his own pede steps. Click click click. It was almost enough to start driving him crazy. And then he got an idea. Not like anyone else was here so …

“Let’s put on some tunes.” Jazz poked at his helm as he began flipping through his personal playlist. His pedes steps were soon drowned out by the echoing of his music but it only lasted maybe a few seconds at most. The fall must have dented more than just his communicator because the music began skipping out of beat and static filled his audials again. “Ugh! This really can’t get any worse huh?” Jazz grumbled as he poked at his helm again to silence the music.

 **Squish**.

“No…” Jazz stopped walking when he heard such a disgustingly wet sound. He glanced down toward one of his pedes, below it was a black sticky substance. It was gross sure, but upon inspection it looked like the same substance that was in the energon reservoir before he fell down here. Jazz stepped to the side and squatted down to get a better look. The way it stuck to his pede was also interesting. He’d never seen anything like it, and when he decided to poke at it with two digits they stuck together, though with a proper amount of force he was able to pull them back apart. 

“What is this scrap?” Jazz rubbed it between his two digits as he looked around some more, his optics following where the black sludge like substance came from. He followed it to the wall where he noticed that there was a former energon vein there. It was hard to notice from a distance since most of the veins were glowing brightly, but not this one; it was pitch black like the substance coming from it. Jazz ran his servo next to it as he began following the vein to try and find the source.

Once again the tunnel echoed the sounds of his own pedes…

Click, Click, Click

It lasted for a long time, long enough that Jazz wasn’t even sure how long he traveled. 

Click, click, click, _clickclickclickclick._

Wait, those sounded faster than his own. Jazz immediately stopped walking. It sounded like two sets of pedes, small ones, coming toward him from deeper within the tunnel. Then a pair of glowing red optics, low to the ground, were staring at him. The form began to show as the mech came closer. Oh, wasn’t that one of Soundwave’s cassettes?

“Here kitty kitty.” Jazz squatted down and held out a servo, smiling at the cassette.

“If you try and patronize me again I’ll rip your face plate clean off.” 

“Oh yikes.” Jazz quickly stood up and put his servos up defensively. “Sorry, didn’t mean to offend.” 

Ravage--Jazz remembered that was what he was called--sneered at him then turned away. His tail flicked side to side, probably in annoyance. “Follow me.” And without even waiting for a response Ravage was off, his four pedes clicking against the metal flooring as he went off. 

“Guess I got no choice.” Jazz shrugged. He _was_ a peace keeper right? Can’t get nervous getting led by a Minicon right? In order to catch up he began running after the cassette who’d slowed down to make this little trip easier. Once the two were at a standard walking pace Jazz occasionally glanced down at him. 

“So… What’s it like working for Soundwave?” He kind of wanted to make conversation with the Minicon. Clearly he wasn't hostile or Jazz would already be in a fight.

“I don’t work for him.” Jazz could have sworn he heard the growl coming from the cassette. The response seemed rather odd, the way he understood it from Autobot intelligence was that all the cassettes worked under Soundwave. But then again that was the problem: it was _Autobot_ intelligence. He was ready to strike up more of a conversation but then the sound of another set of pedes came echoing from the darkness. These steps took longer so Jazz could take a guess at who it was.

“Thank you, Ravage.” Soundwave spoke as he stepped into view of Jazz. Where Ravage continued up to Soundwave, rubbing up against his legs as he reached him, Jazz stopped a good distance away, just in case. “Autobot Jazz, it seems you are also stuck down here.” Soundwave’s voice was kind of rad, but Jazz had to focus more on the implications rather than the sound of it.

“Also?” Jazz tilted his helm and based on Soundwave’s words he figured the ‘con was pretty harmless right now, deciding to walk up to him. Though as he took one step too close Soundwave took a step back. Ah. “I ain’t gonna hurt you.” Jazz put his servos up defensively.

“I don’t trust Autobots.” Soundwave spoke simply then stepped to the side, pointing down a tunnel that Jazz hadn’t traveled down just yet. “Destination.” Ok, so Jazz was supposed to go that way?

“Look, you don’t gotta trust me, but we are both kind of stuck here so I promise I won’t do anything funny. If it makes you feel better I’ll even go first.” Jazz offered, keeping his optics on Soundwave for a moment. The way the overgrown tape deck looked at him felt weird, like he was peering into Jazz’s mind. Though that wasn’t possible right? Then after a quick look down at Ravage, Soundwave nodded toward Jazz. “Cool.” Jazz nodded back and turned down the tunnel he was gestured to. Of course he was on edge, but the first step to getting someone to trust you was to put your trust in them first.

They stayed silent for a while, and Jazz listened for the sounds of pedes following after him. First, two large pedes, Soundwave and then four smaller pedes, Ravage. 

“So, how’d wind up down here?” Jazz didn’t even look back at the Decepticon, hoping that his demonstration of peacefulness would be enough to get Soundwave talking at least a little bit. If he was planning something Jazz would be able to find out through his words. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you again for reading, I really appreciate it! 
> 
> Sorry this one took longer than the other two! But the next one should be coming out pretty quickly!


	4. Operation: Soundwave

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> How did Soundwave end up down there? And what were they going to find when they were down there?

“Soundwave!” The voice of his leader, Megatron, ran through his audials from his commlink. Despite the warlord’s appearance he was always considerate of Soundwave’s exceptional hearing. Though right now he seemed flustered, shouting into the commlink enough for Soundwave’s body to react negatively. Never did he yell when he was talking to the spy so something must have been bothering him.    
  
“Yes, Lord Megatron?” Soundwave was always formal, speaking to Megatron as if he were the savior of all of Cybertron. 

“I need you to look into something for me. Meet me in Kaon.” Was the last thing he said before cutting off the link. There was no need for confirmation from Soundwave, Megatron knew the spy would show, and he would be prompt about it. Though his alt-mode did make fast travel difficult. Regardless, Soundwave was always punctual with Megatron. 

Though the trip was never short when traveling through the Decepticon territory. They lacked proper mass transportation, unlike the Autobots. They followed a Prime and were handed the easy life, while those that believed in the Decepticon cause were always fighting for equality under Primus, always struggling to get their chance to rise up. Soundwave believed in the cause more than anything he’d ever truly believed in before. Even if he couldn’t see the Autobots he could hear them, hear their easy life. He used that influence to help create opportunities in Kaon, Tarn, Vos and other Decepticon city-states. Soundwave always seemed to be on the move. 

Now he was finally approaching the meeting spot Megatron had set up cycles ago; it was easier to have a designated place, that way they never had to give out their exact locations. They met in the deep pits of Kaon where they first met many stellar cycles ago. These pits were still used, but only when Megatron wished them to be used. No one had to die down here anymore, yet the memory of the dead still lingered heavily.

When Soundwave approached Megatron, he seemed to be pacing back and forth almost long enough to let the ground wear from his steps. Soundwave couldn’t help but find the sight a little amusing, though he kept that intrusive thought to himself.

Upon seeing Soundwave, Megatron halted and looked over toward him. “Before I say anything, what do you know of Shockwave’s plans before we locked him away?” Megatron’s red optics were tired but serious, how they usually were during these times of peace.

It would seem Shockwave had gotten under Megatron’s plating recently, something Soundwave was hoping would never happen. Normally, Megatron would write off anything that came from that twisted processor as lies, but this clearly got to him. “I only know that he was working on creating different sources of energy.” Soundwave spoke simply, no need to complicate something that was no longer happening. Though the expression on Megatron’s face plate didn’t sit well with him.

The way he looked at Soundwave after his response was troublesome. This was about Shockwave and his energy, Megatron didn’t even have to say anything for Soundwave to catch on. “Soundwave, two things,” he held up two digits to align with his words. “First, I need guard replacements for Shockwave’s cell, preferably ones that are either too dumb to listen to him or _unable_ to listen to him.” 

Soundwave simply nodded, there were plenty of Decepticons that would want a new high paying job anyway. “Two, I need you to, and don’t question this,” he would never question Megatron, “I need you to check every energon deposit thoroughly and report to me any problems, even if they are miniscule.” And another nod. Soundwave knew this was Megatron’s paranoia at work but in order to make his leader happy he would do what needed to be done. And he would do it thoroughly. 

They didn’t say much after that, Soundwave never being one for extensive conversations. So when he was properly dismissed he gave a short bow and disappeared from the pits. His first excursion would take him through Kaon, then Vos, and then Tarn. Each energon reserve was as it should be. With each positive test, Soundwave moved on, though he did allow the mini-cassettes to partake in some energon when they felt the need or desire. 

Soon the journey took him to the far side of Polyhex, an abandoned city-state, very close to Autobot territory. Many Decepticons avoid the area solely because of its similarities to the Autobot land. Soundwave understood their reasoning but found the act of abandoning a whole city-state to be rather.... As Shockwave would put it, Illogical. 

Regardless of the reasoning, Soundwave was here at the energon reserve, but he immediately noticed something wrong. There was a strange crackling sound on the ground below him. But he saw nothing, the reservoir itself seemed perfectly healthy despite this. Though when he stepped a certain way the ground crunched. Quickly, Soundwave realized what that meant. Unfortunately he was in no way fast enough to escape, so he began to eject his cassettes, Rumble and Frenzy hopping out first. 

“Go!” Soundwave shouted as the flooring crumbled and he began to lose his balance, disappearing below the surface. The two cassettes didn’t need to be told twice and in a panic they ran as fast as their smaller frames could take them, out of danger. As Soundwave fell he tried to eject Buzzsaw, Laserbeak and Ravage but only the birds popped out. Unlike Rumble and Frenzy the two birds flew to catch Soundwave instead of escaping. They couldn’t fly him back up to the surface but they could weaken his fall. Soundwave desired for them to escape and be safe but… 

“Geez Soundwave, I’m pretty bummed you’d think we’d abandon you just like that!” Buzzsaw spoke first once they had landed down in the hole. 

“Yeah!” Laserbeak squawked before continuing. “And besides, how come you didn’t hear it BEFORE we fell?” Then both the birds laughed, beginning to fly in circles above Soundwave like vultures. 

“Something...sounded different.” Soundwave’s features tightened as he surveyed the surrounding area. It was a big empty cavern, though the walls were lined with the glow from energon veins. It’s dangerous to travel deep under Cybertron without flight capabilities like that of a Seeker. Soundwave glanced up at the hole above him. He’d fallen quite a bit but luckily he had Laserbeak and Buzzsaw to prevent any disastrous injuries. “Ravage, Eject.” Then popped out the cassette he couldn’t seem to get to safety. 

“Where are we Soundwave?” The cat paced around, looking in the cavern but staying close to Soundwave as he did. “Can you contact anyone?” Ravage paused and glanced up at Soundwave curiously but all Soundwave responded with was a helm shake. Anytime he turned on his communicator it buzzed in an annoying frequency. He couldn’t even begin to deal with it right now.    
  
“Then I guess we’ve got some exploring to do!”

“Indeed we do!” The two birds squawked and laughed with each other, but as Soundwave began to walk they came down and landed upon his shoulders, Ravage walking a couple feet ahead. 

The walk was long and tedious, but there was a heavy tension in the air, heavy enough to stop the two birds on his shoulders from even speaking. Soundwave followed down tunnels that had a certain sound to them, not emptiness like many tunnels seemed to have but the sound of moving air, wind. If he could find another entrance underground perhaps he and the cassettes could escape and then he’d be able to report his findings to Megatron. Though he wasn’t sure what those findings were exactly yet. Hopefully he’d understand more as they explored.

“Eck.” The sound of Ravage seeming so disgusted stopped Soundwave in his tracks. Ravage was sniffing in the air then on the ground. He seemed to be following a distinct scent, that was rather unpleasant evidently. “Soundwave, have you ever seen anything like it?” Ravage spoke up from a small pool of what appeared to be black energon. 

“Don’t touch it.” Soundwave came up quickly, enough for Laserbeak and Buzzsaw to hop off and hover. 

“I’m not that dumb, boss.” Ravage paced around the edge of the black goop but didn’t get close enough to touch. Soundwave on the other hand came right up to it; he needed to get a sample to test it later but he wasn’t sure how to obtain it without touching it. He pulled out a small vial from his subspace, having kept it with him in case he did need to take samples of energon, which seemed to be the case now. Soundwave held it up to where the black coated vein dripped out from the wall and got a couple drops into the vial. He moved it around for a moment, noticing the dark red streak it left against the glass, then decided that was an experiment for a scientist ‘con, quickly subspacing the closed vial. 

He didn’t move for a good few moments, examining the pool with his optics. Then gradually the sound of pedes in the far off distance down a tunnel rang into his audials. Someone else was down here. Without a word, Soundwave glanced at Ravage who quickly understood and ran off down the tunnel. 

“Laserbeak, Buzzsaw, return.” The two birds made a squawk of acknowledgement then transformed and settled back into Soundwave’s chest. 

At a much slower pace, Soundwave walked down the tunnel after Ravage but he didn’t follow all the way, a tunnel that connected perpendicular to their current one had a different sound to it. A different feeling entirely. Soundwave stared down it but said nothing. It would be best if he waited for Ravage before venturing off without the cassette. 

Though when Ravage returned, he returned with the Autobot known as Jazz. The Autobot was clearly trying to show himself off as peaceful and considering his reputation, Soundwave was inclined to believe him...for now. They both walked down the tunnel Soundwave was interested in. Jazz continued to speak up like he wasn’t keen on total silence, but Soundwave had trained himself quite well in differentiating sounds so the noises coming from Jazz weren’t nearly as annoying as other Autobots. 

“I see, ya know, my story is pretty similar!” Jazz glanced back for a second toward Soundwave then immediately forward. Soundwave wasn’t sure if the other was forgetting that he was in the company of a notoriously dangerous Decepticon or if Jazz was just like that. Whichever reason, Soundwave didn’t mind. “So, the big O asked me to check out energon reservoirs too, but I also fell down a hole. Then I found that nasty black sticky stuff...on accident though.” Sticky?

“You touched it?” His voice was incredulous, did this Autobot have no common sense? 

“Not by choice, accidentally stepped in it, felt like I stepped on a baby turbofox!” The expression even made Soundwave gag inwardly. He didn’t want to even remotely imagine what that felt like. But the important factor was that this Autobot _touched_ the black goop. And based on the red streak it had left in the glass… Maybe Jazz was going to be an unwilling experiment. “Oh whoa.” Jazz suddenly stopped, putting his servos out to his sides, probably an attempt to get Ravage and Soundwave to halt as well. The headlights from Jazz’s chassis lit up at a higher frequency and suddenly the sight before him was illuminated. 

Another hole, one that seemed to be there one purpose rather than the ones Jazz and he fell into. So there was a tunnel leading downward. Around them some of the veins connected and the blue glowing light traveled downward in a cascade of energon. If the situation wasn’t so odd, Soundwave would take a moment to appreciate the sight. 

“We should track back.” Ravage began speaking first, clearly not comfortable with traveling down even further. Soundwave was inclined to agree, going down would not bring them back to the surface. But before he could even begin turning around he saw the Autobot shrug and-  
  
“No don’t-” Soundwave let out an exasperated sigh as Jazz began to hop down into the tunnel. The sound of his metal scrapping along the floor as he slid down made Soundwave’s processor ache. The look Ravage gave him was almost enough to make him forget the ache. 

“You aren’t thinking of joining him are you?” 

“Ravage, Return.” Soundwave opened his chassis and with a reluctant sigh, the cat returned to his cassette form. Once Ravage was safely put away, there was some mild hesitance, but Soundwave hopped down after Jazz, sliding down the tunnel after him. Unlike what he expected of the Autobot, Soundwave was careful as he slid down, making sure not to touch anything that seemed out of the ordinary. 

Once he’d reached the bottom he slid directly into a pool of energon. When he popped out and swam to dry land, Jazz was already standing and looking around. At first, Soundwave thought his headlights were somehow brighter down here but actually upon inspection they weren’t on at all. If his face mask wasn’t covering his expression he’d have the same look about him as Jazz currently did. Optics wide and intake hanging open. There were many different holes above them similar to the one they just slid down, each one having its own flow of energon that fell into deep pools like the one he fell into. The glow from each pool lit up the entire cavern as if it were the sun itself. The structure underneath the surface of Cybertron was like that of a dream, beautiful and bright against dark cold walls, almost like an entirely different world. 

“Yo, Soundwave, check this out.” The trance Soundwave hadn’t even realized he was under was snapped out of him when he heard Jazz’s voice. His optics followed to the source and Jazz was squatting down in front of one of the many energon pools, except this one had turned pitch black. Soundwave walked over then followed Jazz’s gesture toward where the black goop was coming from. Above was one of the many tunnels except every ounce of energon was black and part of the tunnel had crumbled away to nothing. Upon closer inspection, there were even red dust particles where the tunnel had collapsed in on itself. 

“This may be too dangerous to collect.” In order to keep himself safe from what looked to be rust, Soundwave backed up a few paces. They got what they came for: information. The rest was up to the scientists of each faction separately. 

“Well, I’m probably already infected, so hold on.” And Soundwave watched in disbelief as the Autobot hopped up, grabbing onto a ledge not far from the ground and scooping up some of the particulars with his free servos. Then, as if it was nothing, he hopped back down, putting the particles away in a container from his subspace.

“If that’s fast acting I won’t be able to get you help.” Soundwave’s optic visor squinted, crossing his arms over his chassis, not in a closed off posture but in a subconscious attempt to keep his cassettes safe. 

“Aw, you’d get me help?” Jazz turned to face the cassette player with a smile. Soundwave was completely taken aback by that statement, enough to even lean back a little. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to sound condescending.” Jazz’s servos went up in defense. “I really appreciate it.” Then a thumbs up. Soundwave shook his helm in disbelief. This Autobot was confusing, though despite the rumors he didn’t seem like quite the bad bot. 

Without a word, Soundwave turned away, giving Jazz a chance to trust him when his back was turned. The action didn’t seem to have any consequences and Soundwave felt comfortable enough to explore without feeling the need to stand atop Jazz the entire time. “Check for an exit.” Soundwave gestured toward the Autobot, which only rewarded him with a bit of a scoff.

“Are you my boss now?” Jazz chuckled a little then turned to do exactly as he was told anyway. Though the way he searched seemed to have some sort of finesse about it. Was he dancing? 

“Are you dancing?” Soundwave had turned to check another energon pool that seemed relatively clean.

“Got a song stuck in my processor.” Jazz stood up straight and tapped at his helm then did some weird thing with his pedes. “Helps me work calmly too.” And then with a hop and a weird wiggle of his frame Jazz was back to work. So he liked music? It wasn’t just for show when he played his instruments in the neutral territories? Maybe because the random unrhythmic taps of Jazz’s pedes annoyed him, Soundwave turned on his music player, soft sounds vibrating off the walls as it filled the room.

“Ok, I knew you were cool but this really tops it.” Soundwave didn’t even bother to look at Jazz this time, seeing him in the corner of his optics as he began visibly enjoying the music. 

Somehow, this moment of music playing and Jazz trying to move in a rhythmic way felt a lot more calming than he ever realized it would. Though Soundwave was in the presence of an Autobot and couldn’t let himself slip away too much. As he was checking a wall for any signs of rust, he suddenly heard a loud thud, the sound surprising him and making him quickly turn around. Jazz had fallen over, rolled onto his side and clenching at his leg. It was shocking, knowing if he was injured in front of an enemy he would never show the source of the pain. 

“Scrap,” He heard a whisper.

Cautiously, Soundwave approached the Autobot, hearing a couple whimpers of pain suddenly stop when he neared. His helm titled and a blue visor looked up at him. “Uh... Just ignore this.” Jazz brought a servo up to wave Soundwave away but the curiosity really was killing him. He walked around the Autobot to get a better look at the leg, though Jazz was trying to hide it he couldn’t hide the red tint on the bottom of his pede. Must have been the pede that stepped into the black goop. “Ok… So I’m infected for real.” Jazz tried to seem nonchalant about it, but he had the look of pain on his features. 

“I told you I wouldn’t get help quick enough.” Soundwave grumbled then ejected Buzzsaw and Laserbeak. Both the birds squawked loudly as they appeared then laughed at the sight of the Autobot. “Find help immediately, I don’t care who it is, though preferably a flier that can get the Autobot out of here.” Soundwave gestured, and with a serious look only the cassettes could understand, they were off in a hurry. 

“Wow, you really are gonna try to help me.” Jazz grinned then winced when he tried to move. Soundwave could understand the pain Jazz was currently experiencing. Back before he met Ravage, not only was his processor constantly searing in pain, his frame was never taken care of and he’d developed rust quite a few times. Luckily, there was a nice medic nearby that seemed to care for the broken. Maybe it was because of the empathy he had that he desired to help the Autobot Jazz. As he leaned down toward the peace loving Autobot, Ravage suddenly forced himself out.

“Soundwave, you can’t touch him, you’ll begin to rust too!” Ravage nudged himself against Soundwave’s leg, trying to push him away from Jazz.

“Yeah he’s right, I’m fine just...laying here.” 

Though Soundwave tended to not listen to others unless it was Megatron himself, and since Megatron wasn’t here right now, he wouldn’t let the only other mech down here rust all the way to the After Spark. With a gentle pet on the helm of Ravage, Soundwave knelt down all the way and picked Jazz up, careful of his rust injury. “Give them some time, they will find you help, Autobot.” And while they did that, Soundwave needed to find an exit out of this cavern. If they stayed too far underground it would be almost impossible to find them. 

With a groan, Jazz reluctantly agreed, grabbing onto Soundwave with only one of his servos, potentially, he was keeping his other off of Soundwave since that was the one that collected the dust earlier. 

“But keep the music on...I wanna jam.” 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading another chapter! I really like the idea of JazzWave and it isn't played on much so here I am making my own content lol!


	5. A Deadlocked Match!

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Think of this sort of as an interlude between some other stuuuuff. I also needed an excuse to put some Decepticons and Autobots in Crystal City so I'm quite happy that it's these two :3c 
> 
> Blurr and Deadlock have a bit of a race~

Blurr regretted joining the Autobots. 

Sure, it was the RIGHT thing to do, but there was nothing exciting here ever. Though Blurr wasn’t interested in joining the Decepticreeps either, instead he wanted to be a neutral, but Blurr also didn’t want to look like a coward. And besides, most of his friends lived in the Autobot territory! What could possibly be out there that wasn’t in here?

“Hey Blurr,” The small yellow bot was tapping his digits on the table where the both of them sat. It was a small local bar owned by a red minibot named Swivel or Swag or something that Blurr couldn’t bother to remember. “What’s with the face?” Bumblebee gestured towards Blurr’s expression just to emphasize. .

“What? You jealous?” Blurr swirled his drink around, watching the high-grade slosh about. 

“I mean the frown, dummy.” Though Bumblebee wasn’t really one to talk, he looked pretty bored too. 

“It’s just the same scrap here everyday, and-” Blurr pulled the drink to his lips, but he kept talking to Bumblebee, more in a whisper now, “the barkeep here keeps looking at me, it’s making me uncomfortable...but this is the only decent bar around…” Then he actually sipped the drink, glancing over toward the minibot who just so happened to look over at the same time. ECK.

“Swerve?” Oh that was his name. “Guy’s harmless, he’s just got a crush on you.” This seemed to tickle Bee a bit, smirking as he sipped at his drink. 

“Does he now?” Blurr glanced back down at his drink, thinking about it for a moment. Then an idea came to his helm. Oh this might be good. “Hey, Swirl.” Blurr waved towards him making the minibot jump excitedly then practically scurry over like a nitro-rat… gross. 

“Y-Yes!” He was shaking too? Wow, this little bot really did have a thing for Blurr.

“I have a bit of a problem.” Blurr put on his best innocent face he could POSSIBLY muster. “Me and my friend here,” he gestured towards Bumblebee, “we may have forgotten to grab some shanix before coming here...” Blurr left the rest of the sentence open, seeing how the minibot would react.

“Blurr-” Bee began to speak but Blurr put a servo up to stop him, optics locked on the squirming red mech.

“Oh uh- it’s!.....okay! On the House!” The words were broken and it was clear he was incredibly nervous, even his servos looked clammy. And with the okay, Blurr downed the rest of his engex and stood up, patting Swivel on the helm.

“You’re a good mech, I might even show up again.” Blurr gave him a small salute before skipping out of the bar with a system full of free engex. He’ll have to wash his servo later though, that’s for sure. 

“Are you serious?!” The voice of his friend rang out as he glanced back to see the little yellow bot chasing after him. “You practically just _stole_ from him!” Bumblebee gestured back toward the bar that was quickly getting smaller and smaller as Blurr got as far away from it as he could.

“I was paying him in looks, you saw how long he stared at me.” 

“Ugh… Well, you better pay for it next time.” Bumblebee grumbled, clearly annoyed but Blurr couldn’t bring himself to care all that much.

“Oh, I’m not going again.”    
  
“What?” Bumblebee stopped in his tracks which made Blurr stop just to look back at him. “You double lied? Jeez Blurr…” And now he sounded annoyed AND disappointed, crossing his arms over his chassis like he was some saint. 

“I said “might”. Plus it doesn’t really _matter._ ” Blurr rolled his optics then shook his helm. “I’m going to go look for a new hangout spot. You in or not Bee?”

“Nope.” Bumblebee shook his helm. “I’m going to go apologize to _Swerve_ in your stead.” And before Blurr could even protest (not that he really cared to) Bumblebee turned around and ran off. He ran so slow it was like watching an industrial mech. 

“ _Whatever_ “ With a showy little servo stand, Blurr transformed into his alt-mode and tore off with little regard for the laws of the road. 

There weren’t many bars that Blurr enjoyed frequenting anymore. His old favorite bar never reopened, and the others weren’t even accommodating. Plus, all these mechs that lived in Iacon were either boring...or creepy. AND almost half the planet was divided so what the scrap? This really left only one option for Blurr: to finally check out the neutral territory. Though he couldn’t help but feel relatively nervous. Without a friend to accompany him he was basically at the mercy of any Decepticreep that could catch him…. Oh who was he kidding!? No one could catch him! 

Speeding to the checkpoint posed no problem for him and they let him through without so much as a comment. Was it always this easy? 

The other side of the Autobot territory, the neutral zone, wasn’t that different. Though it was far more open than the city of Iacon, much more room to drive and race. Apparently, the new Crystal City was a sight to see so, of course, he may as well speed on through it. The sparkle of the city glistened on the road, creating a beautiful display of light, almost like the city had a halo fixed around it. Just to the side was a little stand, a mech was waving at Blurr as he passed by it. Wow the locals are nice too. 

Blurr hadn’t noticed he slowed down to take in the beauty when a speedster slid directly in front of him. There was no way Blurr could stop in time, he was never that good at sudden stops. In order to avoid crashing he transformed and flipped over the speedster. The moment allowed him to take in their colors, black with white and yellow accents, which totally gave away their allegiance. 

“What-in-the-frag-are-you-doing-stopping-in-front-of-someone-decepticreep?!” The excitement of the territory, encountering a Decpeticon and almost crashing into said Decepticon made the words spill from his intake at lightning speed. 

As Blurr’s words tumbled out the Decepticon decided to transform too. He had two long finials and a frame type that screamed trouble. The Decepticon tilted his helm and raised an optic ridge, the red hue of his optics glowed as he looked Blurr up and down, as if he was studying him. The incredulous look made Blurr instinctively back up. 

“What’s a little Autobot doin’ out here alone?” The voice finally left from the mech’s intake. He had a slight accent, probably from the slums. He was nothing more than a street mech! Though judging from the armor, he was made for fighting, which was not exactly the best encounter for Blurr. 

“What’s-it-to-you?! Last-I-checked-this-was-neutral-territory-and-you-have-no-right-to-question-me!” Blurr pointed at the Decepticon as his nerves grew higher and higher. Though the way Blurr spoke seemed to take him aback, at least enough for Blurr to turn, transform and peel out into the city. There was no way he’d let that Decepticon get his grimy servos on him!

It was only seconds before he was inside the city. He sure would love to take in the sights but he couldn’t even be sure if he was being followed or not! The narrow streets and sharp turns of the city made it hard for Blurr to keep his speed up, having to even slow to almost a stop. A particular turn was almost a U-turn! Blurr had to skid to a stop, even transforming so he wouldn’t crash straight into the building before him. Though that only did so much, tumbling along the road until his frame thudded into the building. That was totally ungraceful. Maybe he’d just continue on his pedes… 

Or at least that’s what he thought. As he stood up to dust himself off he heard the revv of a powerful engine, optics looking toward the source. There he was, the Decepticon in his vehicle mode, revving at him as if he was about to ram Blurr further into the building.

“GET-AWAY-FROM-ME!!” Blurr yelled, deciding to run instead of drive where he’d have at least a little more control over himself but his speed would still be slower. It’s fine! He was the fastest thing on Cybertron! His legs took him as fast as he could, even running up a couple buildings as he tried to turn, though not very successful. 

“Hey! Watch it!” Blurr would occasionally hear shout toward him, but just as the voice grew closer it was quickly behind him. Without fighting and running for his life, he’d grown quite rusty, perhaps that’s why each curve and turn on these streets grew harder and harder. 

“What?!?!” The heels of his pedes dug into the ground, tried to force himself to stop, anything that would stop him from crashing into the Decepticon giving him a fangy grin. But just as he was close enough weight was thrown onto him and he thudded to the ground, the larger Deception holding him down with a maniacal laughter. 

“Holy scrap you are fast!” The Decepticon began venting heavily, and the more Blurr struggled to wiggle away the tighter he held on. It was like a vice grip! What the frag?!   
  
“LET-GO-LET-GO-LET-GO-LET-GO-LET-GO-LET-GO-LET-GO-LET-GO!!” 

“Primus, shut! Up!” A servo was shoved into his face, obstructing his intake and sufficiently snuffing his vocalizer for the moment. “How are you this annoying?!” The Decepticon growled then gripped at Blurr’s face tighter when he still tried to shout.

The display between the two mechs got the attention of the neutrals that lived here. A few peaking over curiously, optic ridges raising Apparently the pleading expression on Blurr’s face plate was completely lost on them. Were they just STUPID? Did they just not CARE that an INNOCENT AUTOBOT was being attacked by a SNEAKY DECEPTICON!?!? 

“I’m going to take my servo away, if you scream again I’m going to punch you, understand?” The Decepticon tilted his helm, his finials almost making him look more animalistic than robotic. Blurr of course said nothing, considering he _couldn’t_ and nodded his helm. With the confirmation, the servo left his intake and Blurr vented out just as heavily as the frame above him. 

“Who-are-you? How-did-you-catch-me? Why-aren’t-we-fighting? What-is-happening?!” Blurr’s pitch began to rise but the threatening fist above his face caused him to lower it again. 

“That’s...a lot o’ questions, ya wanna dial it down to one at a time?” The expression on the Decepticon’s face plate was a weird mix between confusion and amusement. Why were they all crazy sadists? 

“Who. Are. You.” Blurr repeated carefully, wiggling a little bit again, the heavier frame pressing down more against him, chassis to chassis. 

“Deadlock, next?” 

“DEADLOCK!?” 

“What did I say about shouting?!” Though instead of receiving a punch to the face the side of Deadlock’s arm shoved itself against his intake. “Okay, I’ll just guess your questions, I’m Deadlock, I’ve recently taken to staying here more often than not, you’re supposed to stop at the check in before entering the city but you sped right passed it, you cocky little pile of scrap.” 

Oh.

Blurr’s optics stared wide into the deep red ones squinting just above. It was silent for a moment as Deadlock seemed to let Blurr process what all that meant. The only sound either of them seemed to pay attention to was the rumbling of two speedster engines pressed close together. 

“Drift?” A voice interrupted their moment of silence, Blurr’s helm following Deadlock’s(Or Drift??) as they both looked up toward the voice. Standing just a little bit aways was a thinner looking mech, mostly white with red accents and yellow optics. He was clearly a resident of the neutral capital as he had the same armor type as the rest of them. Though the wings on his back sort of gave away his alt-mode. 

“It ain’t what it looks like Wing, so stop looking at me so disappointed like.” Deadlock pulled his arm away from Blurr’s intake, another quick exvent leaving him as he got up from the blue speedster. “This dumb Autobot just sped in here illegally AND vandalized some scrap so, guess you got a new pet.” Deadlock gestured looking pretty pleased with himself. 

“Vandalized?!” Blurr quickly rolled over onto his front, picking his helm up seeing the path he just came from… Building’s windows were shattered and stalls that were set up just at the edge of the road were destroyed. Ah. Okay, Deadlock got him there.

“The Autobot isn’t the only dumb one here Drift.” The apparently named Wing gestured behind Deadlock. Both the dumb speedsters turned to look at the direction from where Deadlock had come. Much like Blurr’s side except the damage didn’t go up the wall. “Dai Atlas is going to extend your time here...again.” Wing sighed, putting a servo to his helm as if he was dealing with a couple of sparklings. 

“Well, I was just- “ Then he grumbled, kicking some debri off to the side, clearly annoyed. 

“Come on, both of you.” Wing turned away and began walking, trusting the two to follow. 

“Wait hold on,” Jumping up to his pedes, Blurr pointed towards Deadlock accusingly. “If it weren’t for this, this… this DECEPTICON, I wouldn’t have had to run!” 

“Hey you little glitch-head, you just saw me and ran! It’s not my fault you discriminate!” Deadlock grabbed the front of Blurr’s plating, pulling him close so he could growl right in his face. 

With a more drawn out sigh, Wing stopped, looking back at them. “Drift, let him go.” And reluctantly, Deadlock listened, though he did push Blurr a bit when he released him. “What is your name Autobot?” Wing gave him an apologetic smile, as if that smile would soothe Blurr’s nerves! 

“Blurr.” He grumbled looking away and crossing his arms over his chassis.

“Blurr,” Wing repeated in an almost heavenly voice. Whoa. “Unfortunately, we have very strict rules here and it’s important that you follow them. One of which was stopping at the checkpoint so you can be cleared to enter. Drift here was tasked with watching the perimeter. Though he should have introduced himself before giving chase,” Wing gave the Decepticon a pointed look, “you still did violate a law.” 

“Okaaay, well I’m _sorry_?” Blurr gave a shrug, he’d already gone through Autobot checkpoint, what more did they want? “Just let me be on my way then.”

“Ha! Nice try, you fragged up so you’re stuck here.” 

“Drift..” Wing reprimanded him again then looked at Blurr understandingly. “Usually we would, but the damage you caused will force our servos. Don’t worry, it’s just simple community service.” Wing smiled brightly then turned away, waving for the both of them to follow.

The Decepticon and Autobot glanced at each other, Deadlock sneering as he pushed Blurr forward, the blue speedster pushing back. Blurr was now sufficiently stuck in a city in the Neutral zone, with a Decepticon known for his vicious attacks and personality. 

Maybe he should have just paid for his drinks at Swivel’s..

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope you enjoyed, I'm in love with Wing so I HAD to put him in :pensive emoji:


End file.
